Is it ok to be fascist if you're 'only' the manager of a 4th division club? I don't remember seeing a similar backlash two years ago when he was appointed Swindon boss to the one that seems to be developing today. There's football outside the premier league? Who knew. Nice to see that pillock Miliband score points off the back of the outrage. Presumably he was going to be able to fully maintain an active 'role' (as i'm sure it already was...) when he buggars off to New York.

Makes a mockery of the whole FA anti racist campaign. He was signed up to it when he was Swindons manager. But it's ok, he's not a racist apparently, he's a fascist. He's not Roy Chubby Brown, he's Mussolini. Oh, we'll that's Ok then.

He is dirty Nazi filth and people like that shouldn't be tolerated. Look forward to joining the yid army when the piece of shit comes to White Hart Lane. X

No surprise that he's despised by most Oxford United fans having managed the scum (Swindon Town) for the past few seasons. Have happy memories of him ranting at anyone and everyone on the touchline on the 3 occasions we beat them. Sorry if you're a Sunderland fan, but I hope he takes you down because I don't want to hear that fascist headcase on MOTD each week next season. Saying that, I'm sure some at the BBC are salivating at the thought of having such a "controversial" twat on the screen.

The expression on his face in that photo is terrifying and revolting at the same time.

It's a look of pure hatred.

I feel quite passionate about the 'no platform for fascists' argument. It's a long story but I edited a book for a Holocaust survivor, Leon Greenman his name was. Wonderful man whose wife and two year old son were murdered by the Nazis. Over a three year period, I typed up over 300 pages of manuscripts that he'd written about his experiences, which were the most truly awful things I have ever read. He came to our house once a week, we typed, I made him dinner, he spoke about his life, sang me songs, played with my little boy. In short, he was a good friend.

He survived the death camps and came back to Britain, only to find Blackshirts on the corner of his street telling people that the Holocaust had never happened. He first spoke about his experiences to school children in 1946 and up until his death in 2008, he travelled the country talking to kids in schools, about what bigotry and prejudice leads to and how they should accept and celebrate each others differences. An old man telling the story of how he lost his family was obviously a big threat to the Nazi bully boys – he received death threats right up to the last and lived in a house with steel mesh on the windows and a panic alarm connected to the police station.

Quite honestly, this isn't about football. This is about how we react when people try to make fascism respectable. It isn't, they are not, and we should not allow them to get any kind of foothold in decent society, whatsoever. x

You might all imagine how disappointed I am at this turn of events. Firstly I am gutted that things didn't work out for Martin O'Neill, a decent man who I still had faith in.

I am disgusted with my club for being so naive about the implications of appointing Di Canio and not even being prepared for the questions and basically saying "how dare you" to anyone asking legitimate questions.

In recent seasons Sunderland could claim to have behaved in largely admirable ways with an understanding that the club is something other than the ball being kicked about on the pitch. This is largely due to Niall Quinn, now not part of the club. In one ill thought out move this reputation has been dragged through the mud.

I have sung Celtic songs in praise of Di Canio (before I knew of his political posturing) but am ashamed that Sunderland have appointed him as "head coach". He is refusing to put the issue to bed by bleating about his parents being upset and claiming his words have been taken out of context. Where is the context in "I am a fascist", where is there scope for misreading that? He complains he is not about politics and Parliament, fine, but why did he make political gestures to inflame the crowd on a football pitch?

He could have used his press conference today to admit what he had said, to apologise for it and to recognise that glorifying Mussolini is an insult to most folk. He could also have let me burn his tattoo off for him with a red hot poker.

We have an owner who will be miles away and not connected to the reality of this "little Hitler" of the training ground.

There is a real live issue and Sunderland need to be mature about it rather than complaining that the media aren't being fair. Di Canio should have been given a set of values to comply with, one of which is respecting people and understanding the difference between an apology and "I am sorry if my words have offended anybody", instead they have been hugely insulting to the majority of fans and the ideals associated with all the projects they claim to support.

I am a proud Sunderland fan but not a Paolo Di Canio sympathiser (thirty years ago or less he would have been physically kicked out of the ground for his political spouting - sadly in a town where the BNP raised its ugly head a couple of years ago there will be too many idiots who haven't got a fucking clue)

I desperately want Sunderland to win enough games to stave off relegation, I can't bear the thought of this wrecthed idiot being part of the club I love.

We would have stayed up regardless. He might work for 6 months or whatever but two and a half years is a pipedream. Bullying folk, especially young lads and last chance saloon journeymen might get results for a club that attracts a few thousand (I mean no disrespect to Swindon but the scale of the furore is of a different order now he is managaing a club with huge support) but if he starts being a thug with profesisonals like John O'Shea and Stephane Sessegnon he may get a different reaction.

I will be writing to Sunderland for all the good it will do but have felt sick since O'Neill's sacking was known and worse since the replacement has been announced.

While I am on, David Milliband is the master of cheap gestures and can fuck off. He didn't give a shit whose hand he shook whilst Foreign Secretary and supported a government who killed folk because they lived in Iraq and Afghanistan. He and his brother persecute the poor and thought Tony Blair and his Berlusconi love was all jolly good fun. Never wanted him at my club either.

I have to admit I didn't know about Di Canio's political views when he was at Wednesday. He was always passionate and pushed over a referee (whose acting skills were sublime) but it sickens me to find out this about him. It is puzzling why it is only coming out now. Football will win out in the end. And I hope Sunderland stay up despite the manager.